Nirendra Dev
On Thursday, July 22, the Income Tax Department conducted searches at the offices of the Dainik Bhaskar Group and its promoters premises across 32 locations in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
New Delhi: The Income Tax Department made a comprehensive statement on Saturday evening, saying that the "amount of income escapement" could be more than Rs 700 crore spread over six years, amid a raging debate on media independence and measures to restrict press freedom.
"….the quantum may be more as the group has used multiple layers and investigations are being carried out to unravel the entire money trail," the IT department said.
"During the search, it was found that they have been operating several companies in the names of their employees, which have been used for booking bogus expenses and routing of funds… Several of the employees, whose names were used as shareholders and directors, have admitted that they were not aware of such companies," the statement said.
On Thursday, July 22, the Income Tax Department conducted searches at the offices of the Dainik Bhaskar Group and its promoters premises across 32 locations in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
However, the media group had claimed that searches resulted from its aggressive journalism during the second wave of COVID-19.
There are related debates and on more serious dimensions.
First, garnering profit should not be regarded as an act of guilt. Newspaper owners and TV channel houses should not be expected to run some charitable trust. This would also be self-defeating to improve the industry, the media per se.
This point is asserted referring to all media. But what has been reported about Dainik Bhaskar is more than interesting. Some texts of the government statement force people to raise eyebrows.
“The IT department claims – "Cyclical trading and transfer of funds among group companies engaged in unrelated businesses to the tune of Rs 2,200 crore has been found. The enquiries have confirmed that these have been fictitious transactions without any actual movement or delivery of goods."
These charges are definitely serious.
It is truly striking the elementary balance between commercial interests and social purposes, or ethical journalism would remain a challenge for the media.
"A free society cannot exist without a Free Press", said German newspaper magnate Axel Springer long back. If this point is well taken, we must also ponder over his question – "Is the Free Society willing to pay the price of a Free Press?"
Has society in India also not bothered about how media houses and journalists function?
In Delhi, if a middle-class neighbour knows a journalist, he would desire that the scribe help him get his daughter admitted in some schools or get the railway reservation confirmed. They call it 'Jugadu'!
So the media also becomes an instrument for profit-making by the media houses – which obviously would have multiple business interests.
No marks for guessing; these have resulted in the 'lack of faith' among the masses of media functioning.
Now, regarding this group, if the IT department says – "The listed media company does barter deals for advertisement revenues, whereby immovable properties are received in lieu of actual payments;" the story is only getting murkier.
However, lastly in this context, one can refer to what Editor Inder Malhotra once said, "Newspaper circulations were small and salaries were smaller still. Corruption among journalists was so petty it was almost laughable."
He claimed that a member of the Delhi Municipal Committee offered a bribe of 50 paise for every line written to the reporters.
Another version is when the Working Journalists Act gave job security, it also made journalists beholden to the government.
